An overnight, estimated 1,867,000 CTV viewers watched the Buffalo Bills lose to the Cincinnati Bengals in NFL Sunday night playoff action.
The late afternoon’s disappointing end to the Bills season drew just about the same number of Canadian viewers as the evening prime time NFL playoff game Sunday. That’s where San Francisco 49ers defeated the Dallas Cowboys before 1,866,000 CTV viewers.
Bills were out of it early and were outmatched throughout the game, which dissolved into a snowy mess. The overnight audience number could have been higher, but despite the proximity to Buffalo, many Toronto-area sports viewers probably can’t take another local market franchise that cannot win a championship.
The Niners victory led into the official season premiere of the reboot of the ’80s sitcom Night Court. The back-to-back episodes featuring John Larroquette and company were welcomed back by 576,000 and 608,000 overnight viewers in early estimates. Those audience numbers will surely grow once the full Live+7 data is all collected.
All the NFL playoff competition tackled CBC’s premiere of the documentary, “Offside: The Harold Ballard Story,” which played to an overnight, estimated 217,000 viewers Sunday night on CBC. A lot of people across the GTA will simply never, ever forgive Harold Ballard. Too bad — they missed a great look at a hissable tyrant who no screenwriter would dare make up. Kudos to executive producers (and recent brioux.tv: the podcast guests) Michael Geddes, Jason Priestley and Chuck Tatham.
